Unit basics (Civ6)
Units are the mobile agents of a civilization, those that can move in the world and do whatever is needed to spread that civilization's influence. Civilization VI follows most of the established traditions of the series when it comes to units, but it also offers some refreshing new features.Unit models are a little different than they were in previous games, featuring larger models with more exaggerated features, and generally less (but more detailed) character models per unit. Their animations are also much better than before. Producing Units Units are produced in Cities, via their Production queue, or alternatively they can be Purchased instantly with Gold or Faith. Purchased units appear immediately, while produced units take several turns to appear (according to the amount of Production points they require currently). It is not so simple, of course. For any unit except the most basic ones from the Ancient Era, to become available, you will need to develop your technology, or your Civics. And then, there are some units which may only be purchased with Faith, or only if the city has certain District, or with any number of other restrictions. For more information on how exactly the production process goes, visit the City article, or refer to individual unit's articles. Unit maintenance Units need to be maintained with Gold. Each unit takes certain amount per turn, for food, clothing, weapons, tools, wages etc. The Gold needed is automatically discounted from your Treasury each turn, you don't need to do anything in this respect. However, don't let your Treasury empty! If this ever happens, you risk units disbanding on their own. Unit classes Units in the game may be divided into many types, but there are only three main classes: * Military units - these are the units which may attack the enemy military and cities. They are used exclusively in combat, and for recconaissance. * Civilian units - these are the units which perform a variety of economic actions for your civilization, and cannot attack. Great People, and also all Religious units are Civilians. * Support units - a brand new class in the game, Support units are part Military, part Civilian units. Their main purpose is military, so far as they are used in combat; however, they themselves cannot attack, and are vulnerable to capture as Civilian units. 'Captured' Support units don't switch sidesl they are instantly destroyed instead. As per the "One unit per tile" rule, each tile may only contain one of the above units per class. So, a single tile may contain one Military, one Support and one Civilian unit. This is also valid for District tiles and for City Centers. For example, you cannot have both an Archer and a Warrior in the city tile, but you may have an Archer and a Battering Ram (which is a Support unit), as well as a Great General (which is a Civilian Unit). Civilian units, such as the Settler or the Builder cannot defend themselves against attacks. Thus, if an enemy enters their tile, they are captured and forced to serve them. Unlike Civilization V, Settlers may also be captured by other civilizations (they don't turn to Workers!), and may be used to found cities for their new masters. Great People, however, are too proud to let themselves be captured after they've given their allegiance to a civilization - these units are instead destroyed instantly when an enemy enters their tile. Unit actions All units in the game may perform some kind of action, even be it only moving. Thus, Movement is the first major statistic of a unit, and the only one that is shared by all units in the game, regardless of their type (with the exception of the Trader and the Spy, whose movement is special). As usual, a unit may only perform an action if it has Movement Points left for this turn. Some actions may also require more than one Movement Point to be performed, so a unit that has already spend some, but not all of its MPs may not be able to perform this action in this round. Most actions spend completely the remaining MPs of the unit. For example, attacking with a unit of any type will spend his MPs (unless it has gained enough Promotions to be able to attack twice in a round!); performing a Build action with a Builder will also spend its MPs. Note that almost all actions in the game can only be performed after you have issued a command. However, Automatic actions may be scheduled (as is the case of a multiple-turn Move order), and they will get executed in subsequent turns by the AI, unless you change the order, or unless an obstacle appears which makes the execution of the action impossible. Traders and Spies are always based in cities, and perform missions during several turns. They can receive new commands only when their missions finish. Finally, some units, for example most Great People, have special Abilities which can only be activated in certain locations. When you have the unit in question selected, look for white-framed tiles in the game world (if this unit has only one possible special action), or, look for special icons in tiles, which suggest where you can use specific actions. For more information on this, check the individual units' articles, where you will see all Actions they are capable of; also check the Combat article for common combat actions. Types of military units As usual, Military units are the most numerous and interesting; they are also the category where each civilization shows part of its uniqueness. Military units may be separated in a number of categories, which not only determine their main use in battle, but also the Promotions they have available. However, there are several main types, as determined by their way of attack: - Melee units must move into the enemy's tile to attack. In the process they will suffer a retaliation attack, and take some (or lots of) damage. - Ranged units shoot at enemies from afar. They have the advantage that they are safe from retaliation; however, in general Ranged units are weaker in melee combat. They also have to obey the Line-of-Sight rules (see Combat) As per strategic use division, here are the types: *'Recon' - Swift units that can explore quickly, but are not particularly strong in combat. *'Melee' - Strong front-line units that fight in close combat. *'Ranged' - Skirmishers that attack other units from afar. *'Siege' - Units meant for taking down cities and districts, not other units. *'Anti-Cavalry' - Melee units designed to counter cavalry units (or tanks in later Eras). *'Light Cavalry' - Swift mounted skirmishes that use hit-and-run attacks. *'Heavy Cavalry' - Powerful mounted units that use melee attacks and disregard Zones of Control. *'Naval Melee' - Boats that need to get up-close to attack. *'Naval Ranged' - Unit designed to bombard from sea. *'Naval Raider' - Units designed to pillage from coastline. *'Naval Carrier' - This is just the Aircraft Carrier. *'Air Fighter' - Aerial units to attack other aerial units. *'Air Bomber' - Aerial units that can conduct airstrikes on land targets. Naval units Naval units can only move through Sea tiles. In the beginning of the game, they can only move through Coastal tiles, close to Land, but with technological development they gain the ability to traverse Ocean. Naval units must also obey the single unit per tile rule. Note that Embarked Land units are considered a separate class for combination purposes, but they still can occupy only 1 tile each. Air units Civilization VI changes slightly the rules used by Air units. As before, Air Units cannot exist technically outside of a base. Valid bases in this game include mostly Aerodrome Districts; other options are the City Center (which by default may only house 1 Aircraft, however), the Aircraft Carrier and the Airstrip tile improvement. This rule, however, is changed a bit in regard to Fighter-type units - they can now be Deployed on the map, and only then will be able to perform its duties, while patroling the tile where they're deployed. For more information on this, check the Combat article. Unit obsolescense With technological development, units from earlier Eras gradually become obsolete, and replaced by a newer, more deadly version. In some cases, some specific units aren't replaced at all - they just disappear, as the passing of Eras extinguishes the need of them. This is the case, for example, with the Battering ram, when the weapons of your soldiers become powerful enough to do full damage against City Walls. Those units which become obsolete, but are replaced by a newer version, may be Upgraded. For this to be possible, they have to be in your territory, need to have at least some MPs left, and you need to have certain amount of Gold and possibly a Strategic resource available. Upgraded units preserve all their Promotions and experience. They don't Heal, though. Military units are easy to learn, but difficult to master - the game has an extensive system of Rock-Paper-Scissors style bonuses and vulnerabilities which approach the level of sophistication of Real-time strategy games like Starcraft. Make sure to use the right units in the right situation! For more info on this, refer to the Combat article. Civilian Units Civilization VI introduces an unparallelled variety of Civilian units, with many different uses. Some of them, like the Settler and the Builder are essential to your development, and available right from the start of the game. Others, like the Religious units, have more specific uses, and can be Purchased and used only under special circumstances. Finally, the Great People have become more specialized than ever, every single one of them being completely unique, with unique Abilities, and even their own Biography! Civilian units cannot defend themselves against enemies. If an enemy Military unit manages to enter their tile, they are either Captured, and start serving another civilization, or they are instantly destroyed. This is why the game introduces the new Escort mechanics, whose specifics you can find here. Using Civilian unit's Abilities Civilization VI also makes a change in how Civilian units are used. Namely, most can now be used only for several actions, after which they disappear. This notion is even represented graphically - each Civilian unit now has as many members as there are charges left in it. So, for example, a Builder with three charges will have three characters displayed, while one with a single charge left will only have one character. Although this system is hardly new, the fact that it is now used for the most basic things in the game changes radically how you think about Civilian units use - in most cases you won't be caring about them all the time, just until you move them to the right place where you want to use their abilities. Category:Game concepts (Civ6)